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Tuesday, August 8, 2017

When
I recently found myself in an uncomfortable situation where I felt attacked, I
was, at first, drawn into anger, in many of the dimensions of that old and
familiar emotion.Anger seems the first
place I go, when a situation spins out of order and sense.My “buttons” get pushed and I am dragged off
in the direction of my reptilian, crisis oriented brain.

The
dark clouds of raw, untamed, uncivilized emotions and untempered responses
obscure my usual cheery, gentile approach to the daily challenges of life.It is a quick journey to the Dark Side.

I
want to just throw my thunderbolts, and shoot endless rounds of arrows into my
foe, throwing my weight around and relentlessly wage my own private war.

Old
fears show up, ghosts of anxieties past, spurred on by familiar inadequacies,
the voices of old and powerful critics, and the scars of self doubts.

My
rational, more civilized mind, just sits there, paralyzed by all the sabre rattling,
until I can take some deep breaths.I’ll
need to allow myself to listen to my frontal lobes, home of reason, logic, and
good memories of my prior successes in peace making and problem solving.

Slowly,
thoughts of how I am a good problem solver come to mind.I can entertain the idea that challenges in
my life don’t need me inputting launch codes into my own arsenal of
intercontinental ballistic missiles.

I
am capable, I remind myself.And, my
many talents at peace making and problem solving can be applied to the problem at
hand.

I
realize I haven’t faced this particular problem in the past, but I have worked
through things and lived to tell the tale.

I
just need to apply those hard-earned skills into this new challenge.

Filling
the challenge with my own unique abilities is what is needed.I need to be adaptable, flexible, and, yes,
methodical.The reptilian reaction of
anger, rage, and war-making won’t work, and will only lay waste to
relationships and problem solving.

Change
and crisis, and that initial response of anger, spiced with overpowering
feelings of shame, guilt, inadequacy, failure, rejection, jealousy, and
revenge, all stirred up, makes for a toxic cocktail.

Sometimes,
I wonder if I’m addicted to that gut-wrenching response, and those stress
chemicals are my own kind of heroin. Or, am I just a human being, hardwired to
be the cranky alligator awakened from his nap.

Yet,
when I can pull myself away from all that, and let my gut unclench, I can see
the forest for the trees, and I can adapt my problem solving skills, and get to
work.

I
pour myself into the shape of the problem, like water in an ice filled glass,
and fill in the spaces with my skills.Once I take this approach, and take off my armor and lay down my sword,
and pick up my peacemaker tools, the solutions show up, and I can move ahead.

“Let
it go,” I tell myself, pushing away the hot coals of rage and anger.“Give it time and this will play itself out.”

When
I slow down the war talk, and take my time in walking through the battleground,
I do better, and I start even liking myself. I begin to believe that this too
shall pass, and I don’t need to start World War III. Later, that seems a simple
truth.But, in my first response, I just
don’t see it.I’m only the ‘gator in the
swamp.

Life
does that, giving us opportunities to revisit a lesson, and dust off some old
tools. Again, I relearn the lesson and realize that not every affront and
perceived insult calls for my reptilian warrior mode.

“It’s
just life,” I remind myself.“I’ll get
through it, and move on.”

I
can deal with this, and do that work well.

I
come to that, eventually, after I remind myself that I am like water, able to
fill the space I find myself in.

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Sometimes, there are no words to say or write.Being present and loving another person is
often what is called for.You honor
their life and their love for you, in how you live, and love.Words may come later.Actions speak now.Love others as another has loved you.

Saturday, June 17, 2017

They come into my life and then, too
early, they are gone.And I mourn and
grieve, cry and moan.I am angry at my
loss, my pain, the void in my life as their sudden absence is a bleeding,
infected wound that never quite seems to heal.

Grief dances its macabre and
bittersweet retinue of every emotion, taking fiendish joy in ambushing me when
I least expect it, when I am least able to cope with the pain.

Yet, deep down, I still carry their
light and their love, and sense their their soul, still resounding with me,
still an integral part of my life.

Why? What was so special about that
person that I am so profoundly affected by their passing? What was it about
them that reached me, touched my heart, and brought them so close to me, such
an essential part of my life, my own story?What is the lesson to be learned?

I just read that plants emit light
frequencies in a part of the light spectrum that is invisible to our eyes, yet
photography is now able to record those images, those vibrations, and reveal
another dimension of the profound beauty and intricacies of these living
beings.

Is it that much of a stretch in
thinking that people also emit vibrations and frequencies of light that is
invisible to our eyes, yet sensed in a much deeper level by us, on a different,
yet intuitive, level.

“You are special.You bring something into my life that is
beautiful, meaningful for me.”

Attraction.

The law of attraction teaches us
that we attract to ourselves the emotions, the feelings, the vibrations that we
need.And when we open ourselves to
those feelings, the presence of what we crave, then we become more complete,
and more able to live the life that we deeply desire.We come closer to fulfilling our true purpose
in this life.

And when a special person leaves us,
there is a void, an emptiness, a loss.Yet there is also the knowing, deep down, of what they have brought to
us in our all too brief time together.That memory serves us well, teaching us what we had needed and desired,
to be a better, more complete person.

In that loss, that death, there are
lessons to be learned, lessons on what we have needed and taken in, and grown
from.When the class is over, only then
do we fully appreciate the lessons learned, the experience gained, the real
benefit of being present for the lesson, the experience.

At the end of a particular journey,
the end of that special time when a special friend has come into my life and
walked with me, only then do I first realize what I have experienced, what we had
set out to learn, and how I needed to grow.I look back, and only then see from where I have come, how far I have
traveled, and the name of the road I am on.

These dear ones who have passed on, the
ones whose light I have needed along my own journey, have taught me great
lessons, and deeply impacted my life.I
find that when they are gone, only then do I start to fully realize the gifts
they have given me, the lessons they have taught me, and the special places
they have held in my life.Only then do
I fully appreciate them, and find some sense of completeness and understanding
of their presence in my life.

Somehow, their teaching to me is not
complete until they are gone. Only then do I learn all the lessons they have
been teaching me.

Only then is the full spectrum of
the light they have shared revealed to me.

Only then can grief lead me to the
understanding I have been led to eventually discover.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

I can choose to do nothing, to embrace the status quo,
and not examine my own thinking, my own, old ways of doing things.Or, I can be the wrecking ball, the sour
voice of discontent when new ideas and new ways come my way.

Or, I can be the builder, using the solid, time tested
materials and ways that have worked in the past, and incorporate the new
energies, the new ideas, and make things better.

My choice.

“There
is no more neutrality in the world. You either have to be part of the solution, or you're going to be part of the problem.”--
attributed to Eldridge Cleaver.

My community is going through a lot of change now.Our downtown traffic pattern is being
completely revamped, and the streets and sidewalks are torn up.The usual routines and paths are disrupted,
and our city bird is the construction crane. Construction worker orange and
raincoats is the new fashion statement.

I can curse the detours, the mud, the mess, or I can look
through that and see the beginnings of the new town plaza, the spots for new
street trees, and the better traffic flow that will come from this.

I choose to build, to make stronger, to help others on
their own path, so that they can achieve their dreams, and to find their path a
little easier.

And, I can join the voices embracing the new energies,
the vitality of a prosperous, active downtown area.I can be part of that, and be a builder.

I’ve done my share of whining about what is lacking in my
home town. But, I am choosing to be a builder, not a destroyer, a part of the
solutions and not part of the problems.

To that end, I’ve helped organize and host a monthly open
mic downtown on Saturday nights, providing a performance space for writers,
musicians, and other artists.Part of
that work is joining others to bring gallery space for artists downtown, and
promote the creative arts.

I’m a master gardener and have helped educate myself and
others on sustainable gardening and educating the community about being better
stewards of the land.I’ve nurtured and
planted community garden space.

I’m working on a foundation to help fund improvements to
local parks and recreation spaces.

And, I’ve spoken out in favor of our community library,
and worked on the campaign to renew its local funding.

I’m not alone.This community is on the move, and change is on the wind.New ideas, new projects are everywhere.Nearly seventy of my neighbors just returned
from a ten day trip to China, having new experiences, learning about another
part of the world, and coming home with new ideas and a new international
perspective.

Today is Poem In Your Pocket Day, which encourages us to
share an inspirational poem.Here’s my
choice:

Change is all around me.I could choose to be the stick in the mud, struggling against the tide,
holding fast to the old, the familiar.Or, I could be part of the change, going with the flow, being one with
the river; and embracing the change.

The old ways can be comforting, certainly familiar. Yet,
will they be successful, meaningful as the world, as my community changes?

“The
civilization that is able to survive is the one that is able to adapt to the
changing physical, social, political, moral and spiritual environment in which
is finds itself.”(Leon Megginson, 1963.
quoted by Thomas Friedman, Thank You For
Being Late, 2016, p. 298)

I can be the bridge builder, the advocate for a better
community, or I can be the stick in the mud, and let the tide move against me,
leaving me rotting in the muck of the past, as the world passes by.

About Me

a photographer, and a student of the beauty of Tillamook County, Oregon. Also a writer, an artist, exploring the gifts of the Muse. I'm working on a book on mentoring young men, and fatherlessness in our culture.
all photos copyright Neal Lemery 2010-2013.